​Hi everyone, I've just returned from a summer adventure at Shanghai. It’s hard to explain the sense of optimism and excitement that you feel when you walk through Shanghai – it’s a city that is just alive and buzzing. I think this is because China is a country that is developing so quickly and playing an increasingly important role globally.

Shanghai is a great place to get an understanding of modern China’s role in our global future. The city also offers a great mix of old and new – on the one hand you can see old-school produce markets in the streets, eat traditional cuisine, and witness time-honored customs, but on the other hand you can see a rapidly expanding skyline that is so gleaming and futuristic it almost looks like it was built by aliens. Where else in the world can you experience such a contrast?